At our January Congregational Gathering, our Campus Master Plan Team presented our Campus Master Plan (CMP). The CMP was commissioned as a priority based on output from the Mosaic Project strategic plan. This CMP will help us fulfill God’s vision for SBPC to be a growing community of fully devoted followers of Jesus Christ.
Below you will find responses to questions that were submitted at tha January Congregational Gathering.
GENERAL QUESTIONS
1. What are the building priorities?
One of our strategic priorities is meeting the needs of children, students, and families. Our research shows that parents want safe and practical facilities. Current buildings for our children, such as Calvin Hall and the Preschool are wood-framed, aging, and are about sixty years old. Our first priority involves an infant and toddler center.
2. How does this align with missional thinking?
Being missional includes ensuring we are relevant to the community around us. We are demonstrating relevance to our community through on-site ministries, such as Reality Changers, Casa de Amistad, Kids Games, The Many Moods of Christmas, Student Ministries, The Senior Center, and seasonal worship services to name a few. Being missional is equipping our church family to be sent into the world (from our neighborhoods to local and global missions) to demonstrate the Kingdom of God. Our facilities will continue to "facilitate" God's mission in the world. This is one reason we desire to improve our facilities for children.
3. Who uses the nursery, what ages, and how frequently will this new nursery be used in the future?
While we have used the terminology of “nursery”, we are actually talking about a multi-use facility for all childcare, ages 0-6th Grade. The facility will host childcare and programs throughout the week and additionally on Sundays. Recall the surveys revealed parents’ concerns about the nursery in particular, but also about current distances, access points, difficulty of stairs, and safety concerns of current facilities. The new plan calls for an upper level (on the level of the sanctuary) dedicated to infants and toddlers (0-3, and a lower level as a multi-purpose space for all ages. It will house children for Community Bible Study (CBS) which meets on Thursday morning, and the entire Mothers of Preschoolers (MOPS) on Friday morning. For example, MOPS currently serves 90 children ages 0-5. The lower level will also be used for Wednesday night childcare, regular events requiring childcare (for instance Date Night) and of course during Sunday where it will be used for large group worship and KidsSunday programs.
4. Which buildings will be retrofitted and/or retained?
Our plans include retaining Debin Hall, The Ministry Center and the current Sanctuary complex. Although others may be retrofitted and retained, continuing to patch up aging buildings that are not insulated, not accessible for the disabled, and of wood frame construction is not good stewardship of our resources.
5. How much time to execute the plan?
This depends on how the project is phased. Most church Master Plans are executed in phases at intervals correlating to functional space needs and the ability of the congregation to fund them. The advantage to having an approved Master Plan is that the future right to build is established and maintained far off into the future whenever the church decides it is the appropriate time.
6. What is “life expectancy” of this plan?
Our plan is a 20 year master plan. The farther a congregation projects ahead, the more our planning must be flexible and allow for God’s leading and changes in our community and our needs. Adaptable, flexible, long life cycle, clear span buildings will be planned to adapt for future unanticipated uses.
7. How do we continue ministries while under construction?
We will carefully evaluate all options to create the least disruption of ongoing ministry. An effective Master Plan must provide for continued use of our existing facilities during construction and the safety of everyone on site.
8. Do we have a staff that can stretch itself to fully utilize the potential of the master plan?
Our campus plan will be designed to fulfill the mission of the church. Our staff is structured to do the same. The mission of the church will determine how we best utilize staff resources, and our assessment is that we are fully staffed today to meet our objectives.
9. How can we give comments and ask questions online?
Go to http://www.solanapres.org/campusmasterplan/default.aspx
PROCESS QUESTIONS:
10. When do we start?
The city of Solana Beach must approve our master plan design concept, and then our Session must approve a fund raising and construction plan. Once all of this is done, we will share our plans with the congregation. We don’t expect any construction to begin before spring of 2010.
11. Will you build a model to scale?
Scale models are very effective in allowing people to visualize the overall appearance of the ultimate concept plan. A model may be created to provide a better understanding of our plans.
12. How hard will approvals be from the city?
With the current economic times and our recent Community Serve Day, now is a good time to work on approvals with the city. SBPC is viewed as relevant to the Solana Beach community. Parking, noise, access, and traffic are the paramount issues cities usually deal with concerning churches. Our location, size of parcel, and record with our neighbors and the city are all positive factors that should bode well in seeking approvals.
13. What is the amount of square footage dedicated to each ministry? Our thinking in this regard is to be flexible in our planning so that almost any building will be able to be adapted for more than one use. As drawn, we have the following range of sizes of buildings in our plan. The variable will be the number of stories we decide to build on some of the buildings.
BUILDING MIN AREA MAX AREA
admin / adult / seniors
4,200 s.f. per level 4,200 s.f. 16,800 s.f.
Music ministries
3,800 s.f. per level 3,800 s.f. 7,600 s.f.
Preschool
2,100 s.f. (1 level) 2,100 s.f. 2,100 s.f.
Children's
8,300 s.f. per level 8,300 s.f. 24,900 s.f.
Youth
12,100 s.f. 12,100 s.f. 12,100 s.f.
Multi-purpose
12,300 s.f. 12,300 s.f. 12,300 s.f.
TOTALS 42,800 s.f. 75,800 s.f.
Parking garage
26,000 s.f.
TOTALS 68,800 s.f. 101,800 s.f.
14. Will we utilize the buildings 7 days a week?
Our campus is currently used every day of the week. One of the big surprises to the Master Plan Committee was the large amount of activity on our campus during the week.
15. What is being done to cut energy costs?
We are committed to using new “green technologies” and will make this a priority. Our benign climate and location can allow us to be very cost effective in our designs to minimize energy consumption and have durable and long life cycle buildings to serve us well for many years ahead.
FUNDING QUESTIONS:
16. Who owns the property?
The Book of Order has specific language about church property. We do know that the property is held in trust for the local San Diego Presbytery. Some people have raised concerns about our denomination (PCUSA) and the possibility that SBPC might leave the denomination. Although we have clear areas of disagreement, we have affiliated with the Presbyterian Global Fellowship (PGF), where we believe the transformation within our denomination is taking place. However, if we no longer felt we could align with the PCUSA, we know that the San Diego Presbytery of the PCUSA has taken a “church friendly” stance regarding physical church property. We believe that in the event we were to leave the denomination, a friendly conversation with the Presbytery would lead to a win-win outcome.
17. What about improving and selling the property?
The task force explored the option of selling, but recommend that our current location is strategically located. We are central to the Solana Beach community and strategically located near the interstate. This allows us to be a regional church, drawing people who drive at least 30 minutes. The major criteria for locating a church are visibility, accessibility, size, build-ability of the parcel, and the surrounding neighborhood. The Committee investigated two similarly sized parcels in the area (the only two we were able to even find) and determined that the current site has superior visibility on a prominent corner, excellent accessibility to a major freeway and off-ramp, is of sufficient size (seven plus acres), and is in a neighborhood with multiple ministry opportunities nearby and a bonus of available off-site parking which may eventually may become critical as we grow. Such sites as we have are rare and valued.
18. Cost?
If we completed all phases of our current plan, the total cost is estimated to be between $25 million and $30 million. Many factors contribute to final costs, and since we’ve only completed a master plan concept, this is our initial estimate. Once we establish a building and fund raising plan, we will have a more specific answer.
19. When would we have a money campaign?
As soon as possible after our Session has approved a capital fund raising plan. We don’t anticipate beginning any fund raising campaigns before the spring of 2010.
20. What aspects fall by wayside if we fall short of financial goal?
The size of a “phase” will be correlated to our ability to fund it. Often fund-raising plans have several target goals that are stepped in cost so that we only build as much as we have raised. We have not yet developed contingency plans for any financial shortfall. The usual approach is to have initial goals that are achievable and realistic.
21. Will Kingdom Builder Foundation funds be used?
No. The Kingdom Builder Foundation is prohibited from contributing to the operating budget or a building fund.
22. Money was given for senior high ministry area and chapel. Have these donors been contacted?
Funds provided for a chapel were used for the construction of our existing chapel in the Ministry Center building. Donors for that chapel construction were contacted and very supportive. Regarding money given for senior high, we are not aware of such specific funds.
PROPERTY DETAILS:
23. Can we become an evacuation center?
This is a possibility; however this may have some financial impacts for us to consider since the requirement for a more earthquake resistant level of construction would translate into higher construction costs. Actual added costs could not be determined until more detailed designs are developed.
24. How wide will the parking spaces be?
Fortunately, cities have learned that “compact” parking spaces really are ineffective with so many SUV’s in the auto mix of Southern California. We also are looking to the examples of commercial shopping centers where they do everything possible to make your shopping trip as pleasant as possible. Accordingly, our parking spaces are planned to be a full nine feet wide. Double striping also influences drivers to center their cars in their parking stall.
25. Will first time visitor parking still be by sanctuary?
Our goal is to make the experience of attending our church as pleasant as possible, especially for newcomers.
ACCESS QUESTIONS
26. How many exits will there be from the parking lot?
Presently, we have three exits onto Stevens from our three upper lots. All three of these will be retained, and we are looking into some possible arrangement with our neighbors in the commercial center to co-access and park mutually with them.
27. How many exits onto Lomas Santa Fe?
The access onto Lomas will continue to be restricted by the City of Solana Beach and could only occur if we were able to make some arrangement(s) with one or more of our neighbors as outlined in #24 above to utilize and share one of theirs.
BUILDING SPECIFIC QUESTIONS
28. How much greenery?
One of the requested changes in our campus was to add open outdoor space. As presently laid out the main patio/courtyard is greatly increased in size, a new play yard/grassy lawn is planned east of the nursery and north of the Children’s building, and a more serene garden area is planned west of the sanctuary that would be a quieter place to spend time. There also will be added outdoor space at the exterior of the Ministry Center both north and south.
29. Is there space available for a park-like area to sit and pray?
Yes, see above. We definitely are planning to have these kinds of outdoor spaces in an effort to create space(s)where people will spend time on campus.
30. Will a 4 story office building block the view of the sanctuary from Stevens?
The multi-purpose building planned for the north of Debin Hall is not designed at all. It could be from one to three stories by code, and it would be possible to also have a lower basement level. Since the detailed planning for this building has not occurred at all we still have plenty of opportunity to study the best size, and all of the possibilities and opportunities (and impacts) of this building
31. Could we have shower space (so we could participate in winter shelter)?
We are considering this option. These are also especially nice for visiting overnight groups that sometimes “camp out” on church campuses when traveling for retreats and mission trips.
32. Will the preschool have a bike path?
We have not planned a bike path at this time; however, that is only because we haven’t planned in detail any of the buildings or outdoor spaces yet. Remember, this is only a Master Plan—which shows generally where the buildings and different components and elements of the site are to be located. Most preschools do have bike paths in their playgrounds, and we will establish with the Preschool Director what specific features will be included and which are not desired.
33. Communal kitchen?
We have not studied any plans for a communal kitchen as of yet. As mentioned above, this is a second level of design and detail that has not occurred yet.
34. Any plans for enlarging kitchen?
This is being considered. Details will be considered further.
35. Where is chapel going to be?
We have laid out space for a small worship venue to be located nearest the corner of Lomas Santa Fe and Stevens Avenue. This location would also address the concern that the existing worship space be buried by new buildings. One problem we are attempting to address is the sense now that we have turned our back to Lomas Santa Fe Drive. We want to make our north facade more attractive, and this building should give us the opportunity to enhance our image towards our main street.
36. Is the sanctuary filled at each service?
The sanctuary, when comfortably full, holds 650. When attendance at one service exceeds 80% of the actual pew capacity, it is common wisdom to either expand the space or add services because visitors are reluctant to fill in empty space in the middle of a pew. Currently, our morning services are at 80% and our seasonal worship and special events exceed our capacity. We are looking at both options of adding services and space.
37. How much increase in worship capacity?
There are several options for added seating capacity to the Sanctuary space. If the space were enclosed between the transepts (side seating wings on each side of the chancel or stage) and the restrooms, it appears we could add approximately 75 seats on each side for an added 150 seats. If we were to undertake a much more extensive rework, the balcony could be then wrapped around on top of this new addition and the existing transepts. That would add another 150 to 200 seats. Again, none of this is planned now other than knowing that it is and appears to be possible should that need ever occur.
38. When do we get air conditioning in sanctuary?
This will be included as part of our master plan, even if there are few immediate changes to the current sanctuary.
39. Will the sanctuary include a new organ?
There have been no requests for a new organ, nor has this been identified as a priority by our worship leaders. This kind of decision is at a more detailed level than is normally addressed in a Campus Master Plan.
40. Will we be putting the Christian and American flags back in sanctuary?
This is beyond the scope of a Campus Master Plan. Flags are currently placed in the sanctuary for certain holidays.
41. Is there going to be a “stage floor” elevator in sanctuary?
As outlined, this is beyond the level of this campus planning.